Wagner chief to leave Russia in deal to ease crisis

MOSCOW, Russia

The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will go to Belarus and will not face charges after calling off his troops' advance on Moscow, the Russian government said, easing the country's most serious security crisis in decades.

The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin (pictured above) and Russia's military brass came to a violent head in the past day, with his forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia yesterday and then heading north to threaten the capital.

Within hours of Prigozhin's about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute him or Wagner's members.

It had been a dramatic day, with President Vladimir Putin warning against civil war, Moscow telling locals to stay off the streets and Kyiv revelling in the chaos engulfing its enemy.

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The tide shifted suddenly when Mr Prigozhin made the stunning announcement that his troops were "turning our columns around and going back to field camps" to avoid bloodshed in the Russian capital.

Mr Prigozhin, who has feuded bitterly with Moscow's military leadership even as his outfit led parts of Russia's Ukraine offensive, said he understood the importance of the moment and did not want to "spill Russian blood".

By early today, Wagner had pulled fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, said the regional governor.

But before they left, dozens of residents were cheering and chanting "Wagner! Wagner!" outside the military headquarters they had captured.

Authorities in the southern Lipetsk region announced the lifting of restrictions after earlier reporting Wagner fighters in their territory, where the local capital is 420km south of Moscow.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated a truce with Mr Prigozhin, drawing thanks from Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that the "criminal case against him (Prigozhin) will be dropped. He himself will go to Belarus."

Mr Peskov also said that members of Wagner who had taken part in what authorities termed an "armed rebellion" would not be prosecuted.

"Avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal," Mr Peskov added.

In Ukraine, government officials said the situation had "humiliated" Mr Putin.

"Prigozhin humiliated Putin/the state and showed that there is no longer a monopoly on violence," presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

While Russia claimed the rebellion had no impact on its Ukraine campaign, Kyiv said the unrest offered a "window of opportunity" as the nation pressed its long-awaited counter-offensive.

Analysts said there were likely to be consequences for Mr Prigozhin and Wagner.

Meanwhile, Russia's Federal Road Agency urged residents of the Moscow region today to refrain from travelling along the M-4 "Don" major expressway until 10am local time.

The agency had said earlier in the day on the Telegram messaging app, in a post now deleted, that traffic restrictions on the highway in the Moscow and Tula regions remained.

Heavily armed Russian mercenaries who had advanced most of the way to Moscow yesterday then halted their approach, de-escalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin's grip on power, in a move their leader said would avoid bloodshed. - AFP